ATLANTIC CITY — The Alien finally met his match.
Although he hung in there for 12 rounds against Russian slugger Sergey “Krusher” Kovalev, Bernard Hopkins showed his age and lost a unanimous decision and his two light-heavyweight belts to Kovalev before 8,545 fans at Boardwalk Hall,
Hopkins, 49, simply didn’t have what it takes to defeat the 31-year-old knockout machine. But despite a quick first-round knockdown, Hopkins hung around for 12 rounds with Kovalev, who had never fought more than eight rounds in his career.
Kovalev landed 31 punches on Hopkins in the 12th round
Hopkins fought gamely in the final then stuck his tongue out at Kovalev, who seemed angered by the action and went after Hopkins with a vengeance, landing shot after shot to the head of Hopkins, who has never been stopped. And referee David Fields didn’t stop it.
Kovalev (26-0-1, 23 KOs), caught Hopkins (55-7-2, 32 KOs) with a counter overhand right in the first round and dropped Hopkins.
Hopkins did what he could to avoid the power of Kovalev, moving warily around the ring as Kovalev pursued the legendary Philadelphia.
In the third round, Hopkins pushed Kovalev to the canvas, There was no knockdown, but Kovalev then pursued Hopkins, jumping on Hopkins time and again on the ropes and landing flurry after flurry.
After he landed some counterpunches in the seventh round, the crowd began chanting, BHop, BHop.
In the eighth round, Kovalev threw an overhand right that made Hopkins knees buckle, but he stayed on his feet.
Hopkins entered the ring wearing his green alien mask. The crowd chants USA-USA.
Hopkins (55-6-2, 32 KOs), holds most of boxing’s age-related records, having become the sport’s oldest major champion in 2011 when he defeated Canadian Jean Pascal at age 46, breaking George Foreman’s record, which had stood since 1994.
It was almost 20 years ago to the day that Foreman stunned the world by knocking out undefeated heavyweight champion Michael Moorer on Nov. 5, 1994 at the age of 45.
Hopkins has since shredded that record. He also became the oldest to unify titles when he defeated Beibut Shumenov by unanimous decision in April in Washington, D.C. Hopkins had not fought since that fight before Saturday’s unification bout.
Known as one of the smartest fighters of his era, which actually spans two eras (26 years), Hopkins said before the fight, “I’m going to show you how dumb (Kovalev) is and how smart I am. It has nothing to do with reading, nothing to do with spelling. He might be smarter than me in both of those. But when he gets in that ring, you’re going to see a Ph.D and a GED.”
In the end, It might have been Kovalev with the Ph.D.
Kovalev, 31, a native of Russia now living in Florida with his family, including son, Aleksandr, who was born last month. Kovalev came into the fight undefeated, having knocked out 22 of the 25 fighters he faced, including the last 13 in a row. In his most recent fight, Kovalev was dropped by a flash knockdown in the first round against Blake Caparello, then came back with a vengeance,
On the televised undercard, welterweight Sadam Ali, a former Olympian, scored a ninth-round TKO victory against Argentine knockout artist Carlos Luis Abregu of Argentina to remain undefeated. Ali (21-0, 13 KOs), who fought in Beijing in 2008, and Abregu started slowly, drawing loud booing from the restless crowd for lack of action.
But Ali ultimately outworked the Argentine, landing 105 of 341 punches, while Abregu landed only 66 of the 375 he threw.
“He was very strong had to be aware the whole time,” said Ali, who hails from Brooklyn, N.Y. ” I was prepared and this is what I always wanted for myself. I had to earn it and today I earned it.”
Abregu (36-1), who had knockouts in 29 of his 36 victories, thought the fight was stopped too early by referee Harvey Dock, but said, “He was way faster than I thought. I was proud of my performance and I will come back.”
Also on the undercard, heavyweight contender Vyacheslav Glazkov of Ukraine remained undefeated with a 7th-round TKO victory against Darnell Wilson. The 30-year-old Glazkov (19-0-1, 12 KOs) had little problem with Wilson (25-18-3 21 KOs), from Miami, Fla., and had a shutout on all three judges’ scorecards at the time of the stoppage. Referee Randy Neumann had seen enough by the end of the seventh round.
